"In Blowin' Hot and Cool, John Gennari provides a definitive history of jazz criticism from the 1920s to the present. The music itself is prominent in his account, as are the musicians - from Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington to Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Roscoe Mitchell, and beyond. But the work takes its shape from fascinating stories of the tradition's key critics - Leonard Feather, Martin Williams, Whitney Balliett, Dan Morgenstern, Gary Giddins, John Hammond, and Stanley Crouch, among many others. Gennari is the first to show the many ways these critics have mediated the relationship between the musicians and the audience - not merely as writers, but in many cases as producers, broadcasters, concert organizers, and public intellectuals." "Blowin' Hot and Cool brings to the fore the most vital critics of jazz and the role they have played not only in defining the history of jazz but also in shaping its significance in American culture and life."--BOOK JACKET.